It is very interesting that you bring up these two tragic incidents and how they affected you differently at different points in your life. This immediately made me think back to where I was on September 11th. I found out about the world trade center and pentagon during my lunch period. I was in fifth grade and our principal decided that the cafeteria was the best place to tell us what happened, as most of the elementary school children ate lunch at the same time. The information was limited as to not make us panic. It was only when I was picked up my my mother that day that I found out that this was indeed a terrorist attack. As a 10 year old, this information was difficult for me to process just because I didn’t quite understand why people would do such a horrifying act. The innocence that we are born with prevents us from knowing how truly evil some people can become. In the wake of this tragedy, I saw our nation change and well as our perception of other people. Muslim became a bad word and terrorists became linked to the religion and the middle east. I went along with everything the media was telling me because frankly I wasn’t educated enough at this point in my life to be skeptical of the news. I still believed that everything on the news was fact, which is obviously not the case. I remember being so angry at countries and people I had never heard about, simply because they opposed our way of life. I wanted us to bomb anyone and everyone who had any part in the attack or who celebrated the attack afterward.
Comparing this to how I feel now about the Boston bombing, I believe now that death and destruction does not alleviate death and destruction. Retaliation for the sake of retaliation is wrong. While I believe that the men responsible for this tragedy should be punished to the full extent of the law, I also feel like they should be given a trial. As I have matured and learned a little bit more about how the world works, I realize that we as people must wait to get all the facts about an issue before making judgements. In our current world of social media, everyone feels the need to report the fastest, whether their information is fact or not.
I guess what I have learned from September 11th to this point is we as citizens have a obligation to be engaged in both the security of our nation as well as the way our government reacts to such tragic events as 9/11 and the Boston bombings.

After thinking about it for a while, it is clear to me that there are definitely certain parallels and similarities between the male standard and the white standard. We have learned through out this semester that our country’s history, as well as many countries around the world, have been dominated by white people who have kept the other race and ethnicities down to exercise control over those groups. Whether it was the Native Americans who controlled the land before the white people got here, the Japanese immigrants living in California at the turn of the 19th century or the African slaves, the white people have always had someone to keep down so that they could control the land and the resources of the area.
Comparing this to the male standard, we see the men have always dominated women, from the beginning of recorded history. Due to the fact the males genetically are stronger and bigger than females, they have ben able to control the other sex. This is why societies have been dominated by male rulers until very recently. Contributing to this is the whole stigma with women being the caring sex, responsible for raising the children. Because women are the ones that actually carry and give birth to the children, there has alway been the idea that women should be the ones staying with the children to keep them safe and fed while the men go out and earn the resources for the family.
Obviously white males have been the dominate race and sex through out history. This makes it make sense that there would be the similarity between the male standard and the white standard. These are obviously the “strings” that we have talked about in class and how they silently affect our lives without us realizing it.
I feel like our nation and many develop first word countries like ours are moving in the right direction to get away from these standards that favor one group of people over another. With the equal rights movements and women’s rights activists ever present in the past fifty to sixty years of our history, humans seem to be getting more educated as a whole. This has led to people realizing that every human being is born in practically the same way and that each of us needs equal rights. This the only way our society will evolve further and become more tolerant of one another.
By both women and minorities speaking out against both the white and the male standard, they are helping shape the course of history. AS we move forward as a nation, we are going to see a change in how we think and how we are taught at an early age.

The way in which men and women have orgasms is vastly different from one another. We learned this in class on tuesday, but this isn’t something that we necessarily are taught in our sexual education classes throughout primary schools. The orgasm is something that is usually disregarded and shunned, as many people think of it as too intimate of a topic to address in a formal way. When we go through sex education ,we learn the basics of what is going on with our body and specifically our sex organs during sex, but we don’t talk about achieving orgasms, mainly I think because women don’t necessarily need to orgasm to reproduce. On the contrary, it is mandatory for the man to orgasm during sex for reproduction to be a possibility. This is why I think we focus more on the male orgasm, or ejaculation as it is technically referred to.
When we learned in class the females don’t always orgasm, I wasn’t necessarily shocked that much, but I was more surprised about how often this happens, or doesn’t happen for women. We all hear about how women can fake orgasms, but why is this something that is socially accepted and looked over? Women should be experiencing pleasure as much as a man when the have sex. Women have the capability to have multiple orgasms and it is common for people to see women’s orgasms as more pleasurable than a man’s. I think a major reason why women don’t tell their partner that they are not having a orgasm because they think that will upset the man. If she is not having a orgasm, the man might take that as him not satisfying her. This can lead to the man believing that he is not sexually competent and that there is something wrong with him. I think the best way to remedy this situation is to have more understanding between men and women about what is going on with their bodies during the intimate act of sex. With more information, the opposite sexes will better be able to understand each other and there wouldn’t be as much discrepancy about what is really happening in the bedroom.
While I feel bad as a male about women not reaching an orgasm as much as my own gender, I feel like it is up to women to take a stand and talk about the issue more. We as guys need to know what is going on with your body, especially since we have gotten to the point where we are engaging in sexual intercourse. While men may feel like the top dog just because they got their nut, it should be more focused on leasing the woman so that she will want to perform the act in the future.

When hearing the statistic about the most visited pornographic websites in homosexually oppressive nations were in fact gay porn was not that surprising to me at all. It makes complete sense to me that in places were people aren’t allowed to express themselves and they way they feel in public to have to do so in the privacy of their own home, on their computers. Great strides have been made in our country to allow homosexual people to be able to live peacefully and freely. because of this, we take for granted that in many places, this type of lifestyle is looked down upon and even prohibited. Usually, the major culprit behind this intolerance is religion. Most major religions have never accepted homosexuality which is why many people who follow those religions don’t accept it either. It is truly sad to see that people who are simply born a certain way do not have the same rights as another person.
Pornography is a way for people to seek out fantasies that they wouldn’t normally fulfill in their real life. In this respect, it makes a lot of sense why oppressed homosexuals would have to resort to pornographic means to experience pleasure. While gays in tolerant countries are allowed have sex with any other consenting adult, other people have to hide because of their sexual inclinations.
The only way in which these cultures and societies will ever change and be comfortable with homosexuals is with education. We have seen that being gay is not a choice but a way in which the brain is wired from birth. No one would rationally choose to be gay, that just wouldn't make sense. I think that we need to separate religion from what is accepted in society. Although religions have many moral lessons, they also preach intolerance of others in some instances. While people should be free to practice whatever religion they want, at the same time a government shouldn’t use these religious doctrines to make their laws.
After thinking about this for a while, I’ve decided that porn is really a problem that exists in our society, and in the world in general. Porn allows people to seek out their wildest sexual fantasies in the privacy of their homes. While this seems like a beneficial thing, it can only lead to anti social behavior in my opinion. Once this person becomes comfortable with pornography, they may not feel the need to be socially involved. The time that they spend viewing the porn becomes the normal for them, so interacting with other people could potentially become something that they are not interested in anymore. I would compare this to social media in the way that it allows us to be social without actually being social.

When it comes to the issue of foreign aid, I will say that I am completely for it. That being said, I believe that this money for foreign aid needs to spend correctly and where it can help the most individuals. When Sam showed us the chart of how much countries give as a percentage of their GDP, the USA ranked last amongst first world countries. This means that even though we are spending the same amount of money if not more than other countries, it still isn't enough and we could give a lot more.
Where we really need to cut spending is our military. This is not meant to be an anti troops sentiment, but American needs to shed the world police role that we have assumed over the past century. We cannot hope to sustain our country by being spread thin through out the world, in places that most people would say we have no business being. I believe that we used 9/11 as an excuse to stay way too long in the Middle East when it is clear to most people that we are there soloed for their natural resources (oil).
Bringing this back to the Native Americans, the government should be doing so much more to help this severely impoverished people break the cycle of alcoholism and abuse that has become synonymous with their culture. As Americans, we owe the Native Americans restitution and respect for killing their people and stealing their homes. It is not right what we did, but the only way to repair that relationship is through aid and education. We must also respect their cultural beliefs. This is the only way that Americans will be able to feel good about themselves again regarding the Native Americans.

When it comes to handouts, people have very different opinions about their merit in society , but no one truly knows how they would react until they are given a situation in which they are given a handout. People can talk all they want about how wrong taking an undeserved handout is, but if they themselves were given the opportunity, they would take it in a heartbeat.
I feel like as a college senior, I know at least a little bit about how the world as an American works. You need a way in to whatever business or trade you want to work in. I know that it isn’t necessarily what you know, but who you know that determines where you end up working.
Knowing that, I would absolutely take a handout if presented to me. Whether it be a family member or a friend offering me a position that others were vying for, I would take it without question. I know that if I didn’t take this opportunity, that someone else would take it and reap the benefits of the job. This in no way would help me or make me a better person, but taking the job would help me progress my career.
We must make the most out of every opportunity that is thrown our way, and to deny one of these opportunities because of some misguided moral dilemma is silly.

Death is definitely something that I tend to think about every so often, as it is something that is certain to happen to each and every living being on this earth. Like Sam says, You’re all going to die. Growing up in a catholic household where we went to church and CCD every sunday, I firmly believed in heaven and hell all through out my childhood. I think this is an easy thing for parents to explain to children, as it is less harsh than learning that maybe you just cease to be when you die.
When I got to college, like many people, I started to question my religious upbringing. After 4 years, I can say that I honestly have no idea if heaven exists or not. I don’t know if we come back as a reincarnation. I don’t know anything about what happens when you die, because obviously we can’t figure this out. I do deep down hope and wish that there is a heaven that I will be able to go to for eternity to live in peace with my loved ones. That sounds like a blast. Am I just going to believe this because a book tells me? Not quite.
You see, I believe that religions preach this eternity of goodness as a way to get people to do their bidding. For example, during the crusades, the Pope was giving out indulgences which were essentially tickets to heaven for anyone that volunteered to go fight muslim forces to take back Jerusalem. I think this is so morally wrong that it has led me away from Catholicism, knowing that the religion has contributed to so many meaningless deaths.
As I move forward with my life, my only focus will be living my life the way I want to according to my moral compass. We are only guaranteed one life, so I intend to make the best of the one given to me.

Being that I neither define myself as an atheist or a theist, but an agnostic instead, this news of either the existence or lack there of God would be very relieving. I say this because I struggle with what I believe all the time. I was raised in a very Catholic household, one in which we went to church every sunday. In addition to this, I was enrolled in sunday school from the time I was in kindergarten till I was confirmed in the Catholic faith in eighth grade. I considered myself a believer in God until I got into college, where my opinions about many things in this world changed.
I saw how many deaths that religion has accounted for through out the history of mankind. I’ve seen how many people have been brainwashed and forced to do terrible things to their fellow man. After learning all of this, it makes it difficult to claim that I am a part of this organization.
Having faith in God is something that is truly difficult for me to do at this point in my life. If there was an all good, all powerful God, I feel like that this creator would have intervened with what has happened on earth to correct the wrong doings that go against the teachings of religion. When I say this I am talking about such atrocities as the holocaust, the Native American genocide, the Spanish Inquisition, etc. A God that truly loved his children wouldn’t allow them to kill and torture each other.
If a news report came out saying God existed, I would be more shocked than if a report came out that God did not exist. I would just have s many questions about this being and how that being affects our lives. It seems to make more sense that we are simply a fortuitous accident in the vastly gigantic universe.

My eyes have never really been opened like they were during our lecture regarding personal problems as public issues. Even the most intimate decision a person can make is affected by their surroundings and a plethora of factors. Immediately after hearing Sam deliver this message, it made complete sense to me. While every action a person chooses to take has some reason behind it, whether rational or irrational, these actions are based off of social circumstances.
When thinking of what I would say to someone I cared about if they were experiencing one of these problems, my sister came to my mind. My sister Katye is my only sibling and 2 1/2 years older than me. When she was starting high school and I was still n middle school, I started to notice that she was going to the gym a lot. These trips to the gym would originally last about an hour, but as time went on, it began to turn into 2 to 3 hour stints of working out. My parents began to notice this as well, and addressed my sister about the topic. My sister insisted that she needed to be exercising that long and she was perfectly healthy. It was evident that she wasn’t healthy, either physically or mentally. After, many a nights trying to reason with her and convince her otherwise, my parents gave up trying themselves to convince her that she was fine they way she was and she didn't need to lose weight or change her appearance. They decided she needed to see a professional that knew how to deal with the issue. After these sessions my sister became a new person and was noticeably healthier looking. She got involved in better exercise habits, ones that would keep her fit without overdoing it like she had been previously.
With that being said, I think if I had been more mature at the time, I would have suggested the same steps that my parents took. They knew that they couldn't convince her that there was a way to fix her problem, but continued to give support. The only thing I may have done differently would be to talk to my sister and make sure she understood that she was going through something that many women have gone through before. I feel like if I would have been able to hammer that notion into her head enough, she would have realized that she wasn’t alone and there were ways to help her.

As I start writing this blog response, I first want to establish my thoughts on the military in this country. Like most Americans, I know multiple people that have served in one of the branches of our military or are currently serving today. In fact, one of my closest friends and roommates is currently enrolled in Penn State’s Army ROTC program. This friend will also most probably be deployed to Afghanistan in the next year with his National Guard unit. Because of all this, I firmly support the members of our military and realize all they must sacrifice to live a military life. Taking all of this into consideration, I know a good amount about our military and how the whole operation works.
This leads me to my first reason for not wanting to join the military. While I support the people serving in the military, i don’t necessarily agree with some of its “World Police Role” and some of the means they use against the enemy. (I haven’t forgotten completely about Abu Ghraib yet). I feel like we are generally mistrusted and even hated as a nation in a lot of countries around the world. While I am still very proud to be American, I feel like we can do a whole lot better as a nation with our means and the quality of life we are afforded.
The second reason that would lead me to stay of the armed forces is simply my physical stature. I never have been the biggest kid, or even and average sized guy. I still competed in sports my entire life and still do today through Penn State’s Club Lacrosse Program. I was also born with a hand deformity on my right hand which leaves me with only 2 digits where most people have 4 and a thumb. Because of this, I wouldn’t be able to serve in the military, so i never even considered this possibility.
Every time I see stories about soldiers being killed or maimed, the issue continues to be raised in my mind. I feel so so terrible that young americans lives are being sacrificed left and right when there is the possibility of not even putting them in these situations. With all of our money going into the military, I wish a good portion was utilized to keep Americans alive and not subject them to such dangerous situations.